A team of mobile connectivity and drone specialists from JET Connectivity and Abertay University have demonstrated the use of flying 5G drones as a moving connectivity bubble which could transform mountain search and rescue missions.
The demonstrations, which took place near Tarfside in Angus, Scotland, used pop-up 5G technology with an aerial drone to form a self-deploying 5G network.
Mountain search and rescue is traditionally reliant on teams hiking the mountains and glens or the assistance of helicopters for wider area searches. These two options are either time consuming – potentially disastrous in an emergency - or expensive.
Hillside and mountain locations also often suffer from poor phone signal, so rescue teams cannot communicate or share location or video information while working to save lives.
The 5G drone network can be set up in minutes in an emergency. One or multiple drones will search a wide area, whilst streaming video and infrared footage back to the controller over the 5G network which has been created by the drones.
JET Connectivity’s 5G base station in a box is lightweight and low power, so can be carried by the drone and either deployed remotely on the ground for fixed coverage throughout the mission or kept in flight to provide a moving bubble of connectivity.
The project is a pathfinder project from Tay5G, funded by the Scottish Government through the Tay Cities Region Deal.
Extracted from Abertay University website, read more here